Malaysia has reportedly been one of the most recent nations to hop on the CBDC train, with its central bank making strides in the progress study and development of a new central bank digital currency.

Specifically, Malaysia’s central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia, reportedly revealed on January 17th that while the final plan on the precise roadmap to develop a CBDC has not yet been confirmed, it has shifted its resources towards a CBDC “via proof-of-concept and experimentation to enhance our technical and policy capabilities.”

The central bank additionally shared that the apparent reason fueling the ongoing research attempt was reportedly to make sure it has sufficient preparations to roll out a CBDC program “should the need to issue CBDC arise in the future.”

Last year, Malaysia reportedly worked with South Africa, Australia, and Southeast Asian neighbor Singapore to build a proof-of-concept CBDC pilot, going by the name “Project Dunbar”. 

Project Dunbar reportedly took advantage of the Corda and Quorum blockchain platforms built by r3 and ConsenSys respectively, to showcase the wide range of capabilities of blockchain-powered cross-border remittances.

Most notably, it reportedly has a primary goal of showcasing the way blockchain is able to “eliminate the need for intermediaries and cut the time and cost of transactions.”

A growing number of countries are putting resources in the study of the way a CBDC program would function in their jurisdiction. China is leading the pack at the moment by a wide margin, carrying out execution of a CBDC pilot program, called the Digital Yuan, with the mobile app already accumulating more than 20 million downloads since Jan. 4th. 

China has plans down its pipeline to roll out the program and make it possible for global visitors to tap into the Digital Yuan with their passports during the upcoming Winter Olympics, to be held in Beijing in March.